Huntress
by jenuinetears
Summary: AU. Akiza Izinski is a half-vampire enrolled in Atlas Academy. What happens when she and her friends turn out to be Signers, people chosen to battle against Dark Signers, vampires of chaos? Rated T for romance, violence, cursing and vampires. A/Y, J/C.
1. Prologue

Hola, reader! A new YGO 5Ds story! Cheers!

Summary: Akiza Izinski is a half-vampire enrolled in Atlas Academy. What happens when she and her friends turn out to be Signers, people who are chosen to battle against the Dark Signers, vampires of chaos? The drama furthers as two of their own become pawns of evil...

Pairings: YuseixAkiza, JackxCarly, KalinxMisty, TrudgexMina, minor others

Warnings: This story is rated T for Teen because of romance, violence, cursing and vampires. This means that there will be kissing/hugging/confessing of love, blood and weapons, some minor cussing, and vampires. Don't like, don't read.

Spoiler warning for the whole 5D's anime.

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO 5Ds- I can't even speak Japanese, except for hello, goodbye, and curse words. o.o

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Prologue

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"You can run, but you can't hide!" I hissed. My violet hair swirled in my face as I rode my duel runner. My dragon was flying beside me, her green vines adorned with roses ready to catch him. I breathed heavily from the weight of the weapon I was holding, a long sword, and the speed I had to go at to even be able to catch up to him. Having to hold a heavy weapon and ride a motorcycle while your Signer dragon flies behind is just as hard as it looks. But I had to hold such a large weapon and go at a fast face. Other weapons weren't strong enough, going any slower wouldn't be fast enough.

I saw a glimmer of his face as he laughed a few yards in front of me, on his new and improved duel runner. It still had the same style, but now it was painted dull, empty black and it had a picture of his Immortal sketched on it, Wiraqocha Rasca, in purple, dark like the sky during sunset. His azure eyes glared at me, challenging me.

"Your blood is only half vampire," he snickered. "You only stayed at the school one year longer than me, and even then, you were weaker than me, even in dueling. Now I have the strength and speed of a vampire, too. Your Dragon is nothing compared to my Immortal. Admit it, you don't have the skills or strength to scratch me, let alone kill."

"Don't underestimate me," I threatened. And then I accelerated and my sword lunged towards him.

Shock flashed in his eyes as he just rode faster away. I'd missed by a few centimeters. Immediately he smiled again, his face going from tense to relaxed. Once again he was laughing. He wasn't even laughing at me this time.

Even in this dire time he was laughing. Not at me. Not at my skills, either. Just because he was having fun.

All of a sudden I was choking in pain, because of the memories welling up in my head. He stared down at me and my tears as I fell slowly off my duel runner. Worry flickered on his face before being replaced with mirth. Then he ran away again. Fast like lightning.

These memories would be the death of me, literally.

Right now, I could only remember the times when we dueled. How he was so serious. He never laughed at me or anyone at all. He'd been the star of our class for swordsmanship, strategy, and utter strength. I had been second only to him.

With these memories thudding in my head, I landed on the cold dirt, still on my duel runner. Black Rose Dragon vaporized, as her card had slipped off the duel disk in my duel runner when I crashed. The sword I'd been holding clanged onto the still ground beside me. I'd let it go in my terror.

My target, the vampire, had disappeared.

Yusei Fudo.

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OK, this story is going to be done in a way like Twilight (not the plot, the way the prologue was done)

If you haven't read Twilight:

The prologue of Twilight wasn't before the events in the book; it took place during the book. In fact, you could've put the prologue, which was the main character's thoughts, right in the middle of the book where she was thinking.

That's how my story will be done. This scene doesn't happen before this fanfic, it happens in the middle. I can't tell you the details, because that'll ruin the plot for you.

This story uses my knowledge of vampires/half-vampires, which is a mix of Twilight, Vampire Academy, the Vampire Diaries, and my own creativity. This is what I think of them- you're free to think what you think.

I update about once per month, so my next update will probably be in June. It also might be sooner, because I update irregularly.

Review, please! I adore them, especially the ones with constructive crit.


	2. Chapter 1: Introducing Akiza Izinski

Here's chapter 2 of this fanfic, which is technically chapter 1, because last post was the prologue…

Read on, please!

Thanks to all the people who reviewed. They're all much appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO 5D's- I can't even speak Japanese! (or write it.)

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Chapter 1: Introducing Akiza Izinski

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His startling blue eyes bore into mine as we dueled- my dragon versus his.

My name is Akiza Izinski, and I'm a half vampire, half human. I'm a student here at Atlas Academy, in training to kill vampires. My school teaches any assortment of halflings- any teen that has a mix of vampiric and human blood. I'm one of the luckier ones- I have the skills of both a vampire and a human. People who have more vampire blood tend to be more violent and ones with reigning human blood can't even fight vampires, and are here to learn how to protect themselves, their family and friends from human and halfling killers.

Halflings are much like humans, except for the better physique. We can run faster, punch better, have better accuracy, and have better strategies. However, even if you only have a little of human blood, it still makes you grow until your death. Only true, full-blooded vampires stay young forever. Blood is the same, too. Only vampires desire blood; most halflings prefer meat over veggies and fruit but we still certainly don't need to drink any of that red liquid to live.

Atlas Academy is the most prestigious halfling school you can expect to find- it's disguised as a boarding school, and my human mother put me in to protect me from my vengeful father, a man she fell in love with then ran away once she realized his identity as a vampire. He was killed last year, and I feel no regrets. He was a horrible man… he killed and turned many humans, and my mother was only one of his playthings. I still stay here, though.

Why are we dueling in such a school, you ask? Well, the founder of Atlas Academy, Rick Atlas, was a famous duelist in his time. He thought that dueling was a great way to learn courage and strategy, so he put that up as a course along with the other classes. It had been an instant hit.

I have a special gift with dueling, too. If I want to, I can have my monsters deal real pain when I inflict damage. I don't usually do so, because right now, at my level, I only duel my fellow peers. But my powers aren't only limited to that. My ability makes it so that I can summon these monsters in real life, in times of need where I must protect me, my family, and friends.

Currently, I was dueling Yusei Fudo, my best friend and rival. He had a background very similar to mine, except for the fact that his mother and father were truly in love, and his mother was the vampire. She was not a bloodthirsty vampire, she was the kind that fed on animal blood and didn't kill humans. Both of his parents live in a special house in a specially formulated town just to suit "good" vampires and their mates that don't kill humans and halflings. When treated to a lifestyle like this, these vampires get human characteristics and can eventually turn human, if they want to.

Vampires, in our world, can turn slightly human if they interact a lot with humans or halflings. Blood suckers themselves are selfish and unkind, but when around humans, they develop human characteristics, and can eventually produce some human blood in their bodies and become halflings. This can be made a lot easier if they are in the special "good" vampire towns. But it's only if they want to. Vampires and any sort of halflings can control how much "good blood" (human blood) and "bad blood" (vampire blood) they pump out. In my life span, I've never tried it. Apparently, it's dangerous to amateurs and can severely hurt us and the people around us if we make mistakes. Serious vampire training, only available to the people with half-vampire blood or more, is the Level two teaching of Atlas Academy. I'll be doing it once I turn twenty.

My friend Carly Carmine is a girl who's one quarter vampire. One of her parents is a half-vampire, like me, and her father is a human. Since her mother can blend in, they just live normal lives. But they sent Carly here to learn how to protect herself. She's a sweet and full-of-stamina girl.

Jack Atlas, Yusei's mostly vampiric friend, was rooting for him. He's is a direct descendant of Rick Atlas, this school's creator. While he and his family have strong vampire blood, his parent's interaction with humans gives them some human characteristics, and that in turn makes them slightly human, with some human blood. That's passed onto Jack, who's born mostly vampire but somewhat human. Because he mostly has vampire blood, he has the shortest temper known to man, and is quite arrogant. But Carly can persuade the gentler side out of him when his fangirls aren't being particularly aggressive.

I and Yusei were glaring at each other threateningly- yet in a friendly, teasing way. He was at a disadvantage- I still had 1500 life points and he only had 600. It was his turn.

On my side of the field, I had Black Rose Dragon equipped with Thorn of Malice, making its ATK 3000. Furthermore, I had Ground Capture face down.

Yusei had Stardust Dragon out, and two cards facedown. It was his turn. Earlier, when I tried to destroy his dragon, he'd activated a trap that negated my attack. Everybody was excited to see what he would do now that he had another chance.

"My turn! Draw!"

He smirked slightly as he drew- confident but subtle. I didn't like that look. It usually meant trouble.

"I activate my face-down trap card Graceful Revival! With this card, I can special summon one level 2 or lower monster from my graveyard!"

I saw him reach to his graveyard, pick out a card, and slam it onto the field.

"I special summon Boost Warrior!"

Boost Warrior's a LV 1 tuner monster. He used it to summon Stardust Dragon earlier. This wasn't sounding good…

"Now, I normal summon Tricular!"

A three star monster. Did he have any 4 LV Synchro monsters?

I cringed. He did. And I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that led me to believe that I knew what it was.

"Now, I tune my two monsters! Rise, Armory Arm!"

Boost Warrior turned into a large green circle, and Tricular became transparent and three stars became visible within it. Tricular disappeared until only its stars were visible, and then they lined up into a line. All three of them combined to form a light, and then out came his Synchro.

Armory arm made its introduction lazy. Its red claws first reached out of the ground first as it lifted itself up, and then the black horn and silver handle finally got out. It stretched then retracted a few times, getting used to being in this world. Then it stood proudly with 1800 ATK. But that wasn't its best feature…

"I activate Armory Arm's effect! Once per turn, I can equip it to a monster and raise its attack by 1000! Feel Stardust Dragon's might, Akiza!"

Armory Arm, now out of its sleepy state, zoomed over to Stardust Dragon and combined with the creature's front claw. Sparks came out, and then the equipping of the two monsters was complete. Yusei's dragon let out a high-pierced shriek in celebration of its raised ATK. Now it had 3500 ATK, enough to beat my Black Rose Dragon. I frowned darkly.

My blue-eyed opponent stared at me seriously for a moment, and then continued into the Battle Phase.

"Stardust Dragon, attack Black Rose Dragon with Shooting Sonic!"

His dragon let loose a cloud of shining silver with a flap of its wings. My dragon screeched and released rose petals to counterattack, but it was futile. The swarm of glitter overwhelmed her and her rose petals and she shattered.

Ground Capture couldn't help me now. But…

"I activate Ground Capture! When this card is activated, it halves the battle damage I would've taken!"

…I had to shield my pride. That little one speck left. To protect it from the fact that I'd just played into Yusei's hands.

I let my arms protect my face while the storm rampaged, this time onto me. When it subsided, my life points went down to 950. Yusei showed no mercy. He still had a card effect to use.

"I now activate Armory Arm's effect! When the monster equipped with this card destroys another by battle, you take damage equal to its attack power!"

His four-star Synchro glowed red as its effect activated. It sent one crimson blast to me, and I dropped to the ground, on one knee, as my life points dropped to zero. Immediately I stood back up. I had to protect my reputation as a strong woman, after all.

"That was a great duel, Yusei," I said, smiling warmly, even though this time it was my defeat.

He smiled. "You too."

Tenzen Yanagi, our aging Dueling Instructor, nodded proudly at both of us.

"Excellent work, you two. Your dueling skills surpass nearly all of the class."

We both beamed. Jack looked defiantly at Yanagi, obviously wanting some attention for him and his Red Dragon Archfiend, but Carly tugged his sleeve and shook her head, signifying that it wasn't the right time to interrupt the old man's doting.

"However," Yanagi added, and everyone stared at him. "Dueling isn't the only thing that's important at this school. You know that the main basis of this academy is to teach you how to get strong so you can either kill vampires or protect yourself from them."

All of us nodded, suddenly serious.

"Go off to your next class!" he commanded, and we all picked up out things and left.

I and Yusei headed off in one direction, to our battle class. Jack and Carly were off to another, their self protection class. I waved.

Then I turned to Yusei, and linked my arm with his. I grinned cheekily at him, my resolve burning in my eyes.

"Don't get your ego get inflated, Yusei. You know that next time I'm gonna whip your sorry ass."

He rolled his eyes, but a chuckle escaped his mouth.

"Sure you will, sure you will."

Both of us laughed in harmony, my high laugh and his low one, as we kept walking.

~(-)~

I'm really sorry if the duel was bad- I'm not the greatest at writing them, and just doing the ending is enough for me.

I'm trying to make it funny with Yanagi as the dueling teacher, because he's such a bad duelist. Let Irony prevail!

And yes, of course the vampires feeding on animals is from Twilight. I own no rights to that! I didn't make it up, it was Stephanie Meyer. Don't sue me.

Please Review! Reviews make the world go round!


	3. Chapter 2: Duel Runner Training

Hallo all! Here's chapter 3, technically 2!

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed!

To CJ: Angel created the idea? Credit goes to her then. And no, I will not be making sparkly vampires.

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO; I can't even write or read Japanese.

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Chapter 2: Duel Runner Training

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It had been a grueling day, with dueling and training, but now it was one of my favorite classes- Duel Runner training. We were already in our uniforms because of the ten-minute locker room break.

It was my final class of the day, and Yusei and Jack were both in my class. There were some other people too, such as Yusei and Jack's friend Crow and my friend Sherry, and also other people I barely knew. Crow was a halfling like me and Yusei, and Sherry was barely human just like Jack.

"Welcome to class."

Dark Glass, our teacher, said it calmly and he entered from the holding room. He had slicked back blue hair and red goggles always over his eyes, and was quite serious to match. His Duel Runner was by his side, an odd looking contraption, with a sharp point at the front, but it could have amazing speed when he handled it right.

Our teacher's assistant, Bruno, smiled happily at all of us and he leaned against his ride. He was just barely older than all of us, and frequently forgot things, such as what we learned yesterday. Though his Duel Runner itself wasn't very impressive, it looked like a yellow bike with green eyes; he knew the mechanics of our motorcycles quite well and got along fantastically with Yusei.

"Today," Dark Glass explained, "we're going to once again try Turbo Duels, which are duels played on your Duel Runners."

Almost all of the class groaned, including me. I wasn't that good of a rider, and Yusei had to frequently tutor me. My skills were improving, but I was nothing compared to Yusei and Sherry. It all just became worse once I got a duel to play- I usually did smoothly, but sometimes the difficulty of doing two things at once got to me.

Dark Glass just spoke louder with our frowns.

"Turbo Duels are very important to developing your skills as a Rider," he said proudly. "Once you're able to do two things at once on a Runner, you know that you can really do well out in the world, hunting down your enemies. Once all of us master this art, we can move on to holding weapons and fighting when on a Duel Runner."

That was the part of this class that we were all looking forward to. That kind of action was what made us go through learning about Turbo Duels. Still, most of us were sulking.

He shook his head.

"Fine, we'll just do races today. Some of us can afford another one."

This was greeted with smiles, and knowing that he was just teasing for the last part. Then Dark Glass started giving out his instructions.

"First, we'll divide everyone into two sections, Advanced and Intermediate. There are no Beginners in here. Once that's done, your group will race ten times around the track. The Advanced students will have a harder course to go on. Got that?"

We all nodded.

"Bruno will take care of the Intermediates, and I'll take the Advanced."

Bruno then started listing out the beginners, and to my surprise, my name wasn't called. I looked at him sharply, but he looked like he'd already listed out everybody on his list.

"Yusei Fudo, Sherry Leblanc, Jack Atlas, Crow Hogan, and Akiza Izinski."

That time, it'd been Dark Glass speaking. He looked at all of us.

"Go get your Duel Runners and get racing."

Everyone else was heading towards the holding room, but I had a question to ask.

"Dark Glass!"

He turned around from moving his Duel Runner.

"What is it? You need to get your Duel Runner now."

I gulped, and then spoke.

"Why am I in the Advanced section? I'm not that good."

He smirked.

"You don't know it, but you've been improving."

Before I could ask him how, Sherry tapped my shoulder and pointed towards the holding room.

"You gotta hurry up, Izinski. Everybody's going to be done before you even get there if you don't hurry up."

She was bossy, but in a nice way.

"Sure thing, Sherry," I said enthusiastically.

We both walked over to the holding room, and I saw Sherry's Duel Runner. It resembled a horse, being white and having flame-like designs sticking out that could resemble a horse's mane and tail.

My Runner, called Bloody Kiss, was a red Duel Runner with two blade wings.

We both pushed our vehicles to the track next to the holding room. There were three tracks- beginner, intermediate, and advanced. For practicing Turbo duels and just racing, we used these. The actual track for real Turbo Duels is in the stadium behind the Academy, and to get there we need to transport our Duel Runners.

The Beginner's track is very simple, with clean turns and a fence on each side. Intermediate's has slightly sharper corners, a slightly narrower track, and a smaller fence.

The Advanced track has sharp corners, a narrow track that barely fits five Runners, and short fences that can only protect you so much. I've been on this one a few times, but this is only my third time in an actual race.

Yusei, Jack and Crow were standing there, waiting, with their Duel Runners, Jack's was called Pheonix Whirlwind, Crow's was called Blackbird, and Yusei's was simply named Yusei Go.

Dark Glass stared at us, his goggles preventing us from seeing his eyes.

"Everyone get ready," he directed, his hand straight above his head.

Everyone hopped onto their runners, hands on the handle, and feet ready to start accelerating.

"GO!" commanded out teacher, throwing down his arm.

I started a smidgen too late, and everybody else was ahead of me. Jack and Sherry were competing for first, with Yusei and Crow behind. I kept a steady pace, not pushing the acceleration gear too much on the first lap.

In stayed that way until the third, with Yusei slowly inching forward. Suddenly, Sherry nearly missed a turn, and this gave both Yusei and Crow a chance to get forward. When Sherry regained control, we were neck and neck.

"It won't stay this way for long, Izinski," she muttered.

We were both distracted, trying to beat the other, that we didn't notice the change in position for the boys until the middle of the fifth lap. Jack had fallen behind, and Yusei and Crow both had sped up to get ahead of him. I couldn't let them two get the glory. My foot pushed the acceleration gear.

I sped forward, beating Sherry, who was biting her lip in determination. I was just behind a murderous Jack who was furious about the change in the leaderboard. He was cursing very loudly.

"Damn that birdbrain!"

In the next few laps, all that happened was that the pack got more and more close. One burst of speed could change the whole placing of positions. I kept a keen watch on everybody.

Apparently, it wasn't good enough.

Both Jack and Sherry seemed to burst forward at the same time, and I was caught in the middle. I, too, tried to get forward, but it was too late. Jack was going forward fast, and Sherry was just behind my back wheel.

In the thick of the ninth lap, Yusei and Crow were getting closer and closer, with Jack accelerating at an unstable pace. He was just about to overtake Crow once more, when the orange-haired guy grinned.

"See ya!"

In one blast, Crow sped past Yusei.

Yusei and Jack were fighting for second, when I gave one last bout of speed, the same time as Sherry.

Jack, while looking back to try and see us, lurched to one side. He struggled to regain control while I and my female blond friend surpassed him.

But just after that, Crow passed the starting line for the last time. Yusei followed him a few seconds later.

I thought that I was going to get third for sure, but I wasn't being careful.

I accidentally made the long version of a turn, and Sherry, grinning, went past me and crossed. I followed her lead a few seconds after, and Jack after me.

"Crow "the Bullet" wins again!" the arrogant guy said in victory. The rest of us groaned.

Dark Glass walked over to all of us, and we'd just gotten off our motorcycles.

He nodded at all of us

"Excellent strategy, Crow. I noticed that you were saving your acceleration, and that was a good time to use it. Yusei, you maintained a steady pace. You had good strategy too, Sherry. Akiza, you've improved a lot. You can accelerate a lot more than you used to. And Jack- you were unstable, but had a lot of speed in you.

Everybody, you did a good job overall. I look forward to our next class."

I checked my watch- it was already time for dismissal.

"Get changed at go to dinner hall, students," he instructed. And we all did so.

In the girls' locker room, I talked to Sherry after we'd changed. I'd changed back into my regular school uniform, an Obelisk Blue shirt and skirt. Atlas Academy was divided into three sections by our years of training- most of the kids my age were in the Obelisk Blue dorm, the best dorm, because we'd been here the longest- about ten years, because most of us were fifteen to twenty years old. Slifer Red was the home for the kids who'd been here only up to three years, and up to ten years of age. Ra Yellow took in the rest of the people who were here the middle length of time, and were pre-teens, ages ten to fifteen.

"I didn't expect that move, Sherry," I told her. "You're just as surprising in racing as you're in combat and dueling."

"What else did you expect?" she replied, emerald green eyes glimmering.

"I'm a daughter of two famous "good" vampires, one who decided not to produce human blood and one who just decided to have some. They were killed by evil vampires because of their skills that threatened to surpass their own. I will surpass them, and become a new legend, in my own way- the halfling way."

"We all will," I said softly, as we both headed out.

~(-)~

I will get one thing straight:

YES, it is a pun that Bruno and Dark Glass are two different people, teaching the same class. It's just my attempt at humor. I know they're the same person.

And here are the ages for the main characters so far:

Format:

Character name: Current age (age they came to Atlas Academy) (how long they've been at Atlas Academy)

Akiza: 17 (5) (12)

Yusei: 18 (7) (11)

Jack: 19 (8) (11)

Carly: 16 (4) (12)

Crow: 18 (6) (12)

Sherry: 19 (7) (12)

When more charries are introduced, I'll list their ages and stuff.

As for all of their duel runner speeds- I just guessed. It was also just rotten luck that Jack got in last. Normally, he would've friggin rocked. I just tried to make everything go unexpected in the race! And I apologize if it didn't make sense. Honestly, I have no clue as to how motorcycles work. In the show, there were no real races; just Yusei/Akiza practicing, and not even against each other.

Please Review! I love them!


	4. Chapter 3: The Warning

Hallo all! Here's chapter 4, technically 3!

Thank you to every single reviewer for reviewing and for every reader for reading this. ^^ Thanks! Every review, every visitor, every hit makes me want to write more and more.

This is a pretty heavy chapter, and I reveal a lot of the main plot.

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO, I can't even understand Japanese, except for hello, goodbye, and darn.

~(-)~

Chapter 3: The Warning

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"Akiza Izinski. Yusei Fudo. Jack Atlas. Crow Hogan. Sherry Leblanc."

All of us nodded. The school headmaster, Director Goodwin, had called us down to his office after dinner. Right now, it was time for our study hall, but we'd been excused.

His office was huge, and he sat at once mahogany desk in the front. We were all in the back, and most of the light was on our side. The room was barely lit, and shadows flitted across the Director's face.

"You've all been called down here for a reason," The gray-haired man told us.

"And what's that reason?" Crow asked.

Out director sighed. "The evil vampire's power is rising," he replied. Some sort of exhaustion leaked into his words, and I realized that he looked very tired.

"The evil vampires, huh?" Sherry said. Her eyes were ablaze with excitement- she was one of those girls who loved a good challenge. Almost similar to me- we were both quick to jump into danger. Which was what made us the two best female Duel Runner Riders of the class.

"Yes," he replied stoically.

He pointed at Yusei.

"Yusei Fudo. Famed for your good hand-to-hand combat."

Then it was my turn.

"Akiza Izinski. Excellent in long distance attacks."

Now Jack.

"Jack Atlas. Best in the school for sheer strength."

The man's finger directed at Crow.

"Crow Hogan. Best speed available here."

Finally, it was Sherry.

"Sherry Leblanc. Strategy is your forte."

"You five students have the five great aspects needed to create Team 5D's."

"Team 5D's?" We all asked.

"Team 5D's," said Headmaster Goodwin," is a team of five halfling students who have the five great skills to form a team that can stop the unstoppable- the vampires.

Once all five of these students are assembled, they have the ability to bring forth their marks- birthmarks etched on their skin, usually on their arms. But they cannot be brought forth simply by being together- no, this can only be done by going to the temple of the Crimson Dragon, also known as the Stairway to the Dragon Star.

Long, long ago, the vampires, using their powers of darkness, gave seven people the power to easily crush the forces of humans and halflings. They could each, using their dark marks, create powerful creatures called the Earthbound Immortals. The Earthbound Immortals were once sealed into the Nazca Lines- but the dark signers could use their powers to release them. There are seven known powerful gods that burst forth from the Nazca Lines- but more are sure to exist. But those seven demons were the main opponents in that time.

But all hope wasn't lost. Five halflings used the powers of light to stop these vampires- they gave themselves powers to fight these vampires. Using the power of the Dragon Star, a god, they each gave themselves a mark, which allowed them to summon five powerful dragons. Once each dragon was summoned, these halflings could create the most powerful being of all- the Crimson Dragon. They called themselves the People of the Stars, also called the Signers.

5,000 years ago, these five halflings fought against the seven dark vampires. It was a great clash, and it ended in a tie.

But now, the vampires are seeking to start this war again."

"No way," I gasped.

"Yes way," he replied. Then he continued.

"I am not warning you of this great war- I am warning you five of a great, looming, personal danger for our school."

His grey eyes flashed.

"The forces of the marked vampires, right now, are only five," he said. "One of them is my brother. He is planning an invasion to Atlas Academy, and plans to take two of us to be their sixth and seventh dark signers. And if they get the chance… they wish to create a possible eighth, or even ninth."

His brother…?

"I refuse to believe this!"

We all turned to see the source of the outburst, and it was Jack.

"We don't have any superpowers, and neither do they! All we need to defeat them is pure strength! How do you know that this legend is actually real? All of this is bullshit. And nobody in this school is going to be turned! Especially not Carly!"

Goodwin sighed.

"Let us see what you think once I take you to the temple," he said. "Follow me."

The grey-haired man motioned for us to follow him. We all followed him like a bunch of scared children, in a line.

In his office, he pressed on the nose of one of his dragon statues. He had a total of five in his room, behind his desk, and they all seemed to resemble Duel Monster cards- ones that we all had in our decks. This was eerie. I shuddered. When he saw this, Yusei put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. I looked up thankfully at him.

Once he pressed the nose, a door behind them opened. The dragons moved away to let us better see this opening, and we all walked through the doorway, silent.

A huge, darkly lit stairway was in front of us, and at the top was chamber. Where there were not stairs, designs were etched on, shaped like six different dragons. Several poles about one meter high each circled the stairwell, and on top of each of them were candlesticks yet to have fire.

Director Goodwin went around each of them, setting the candles ablaze with a lighter. Finally, when each one was lit, I felt a sting in my right arm.

My four other friends did too, as we all simultaneously reached down to grip our arms. When the pain faded, I lifted my arm away, and lo and behold, there was a birthmark.

It was in the shape of a dragon's front claw. I looked to Yusei next to me, and he had a dragon's head imprinted on his skin. Sherry had a fore claw. There was a Tail on Crow's arm, and Jack had received the Wing.

"Our leader is born," the old man said, while putting his gloved hand on Yusei's shoulder.

Jack was frowning darkly next to him. He looked rebelliously at Goodwin.

"This isn't real, Director. Once I wash this off, you'll have to admit you're trying to trick us."

"You know that this is real, Jack," he replied. "Your friends have realized it too."

This couldn't really be possible. I knew my mouth was open, but I didn't have the heart to close it.

"How do you know all of this, Director?" Sherry asked suspiciously. "And why doesn't the rest of the school know? Why didn't you gather us together faster?"

He just laughed.

"This is why you're the strategist, Sherry Leblanc," he chuckled. "Always picking apart the facts…"

"Just answer my question!" she snapped.

"Atlas Academy has known about the Signers every since it was founded," he replied. "In fact, Rick Atlas himself was one of them. When their battle ended with a tie, he knew that he couldn't let everybody know about them, so he made a group of people, composed of Atlas Academy staff, to protect this secret. The group is called Yliaster.

If everyone knew about the Signers, then we would've had to assemble this group faster- and your skills might not have been fully developed. Everybody would've wanted team 5D's to solve Atlas Academy's problems- the Dark Signers would've also grouped together faster, and since they don't grow, they would already be much more powerful than us. I would be a failure.

Also, you teens wouldn't have already gotten your dragon cards if I'd assembled you faster," he said.

Dragon cards. So our dragon's similarities to the dragon statues in his office weren't a coincidence.

"Yusei Fudo," Goodwin drawled. "Stardust Dragon, yes? Akiza Izinski, Black Rose Dragon. Jack Atlas, you have Red Dragon Archfiend. Crow Hogan, you've received Black Winged Dragon. And Sherry Leblanc, you have Ancient Fairy Dragon.

I know that Crow, you've only just received your dragon as a gift from a late family friend, Robert Pearson. You were excused from class for a day to witness his funeral the day after, I recall."

Crow frowned, but I knew it was true.

"If I'd gathered you earlier, you wouldn't have that card, Crow. And we wouldn't be able to summon him or the Crimson Dragon, and we would've lost the battle before it began."

He turned away from us, towards the chamber at the top of the stairwell.

"We are in the heart of Atlas Academy," he said. "Rick Atlas built Atlas Academy especially on this spot, so it could cover this sacred place.

You are standing on special ground here, Signers. This was where the first battle of Signer and Dark Signer first occurred. I predict that it shall also be the second and final time."

The way he said it made my skin prickle and sweat come out of my pores. It seemed almost like a prophecy, and he was a seer.

Next to me, Yusei looked spooked. I elbowed him.

"Anybody in there?" I whispered.

He smiled at me reassuringly.

"Now you may go," the Director said, his back still towards us.

"Meet me here tomorrow, after dinner. I must talk to you about… special training."

All of us looked at one another, and then left silently, without another word.

"One more thing," Goodwin started, before we were out the door. "You cannot tell a soul about this meeting."

~(-)~

Yes, this is one of those stories that will combine my own plot with the 5D's one. I replaced Luna with Sherry because I wanted all the Signers to be the same age, and Luna's just a kid. Secondly, I think Ancient Fairy Dragon would fit in Sherry's deck. Somehow.

Anyways, I'm not implying in any way that this is the actual 5D's plot. I'm just making it up as I go along! Goodwin's office and the temple's looks are my own descriptions.

Please tell me if anything in the plot bothers you in any way or seems too unrealistic. I don't think Goodwin would say 'yes way' but it just seemed to fit.

As always, please review!

(And if you could vote on the poll in my profile, that'd be great. Hint hint.)


	5. Chapter 4: Secrets and Memories

'ello! Here's chapter 5, technically 4! This is a huge Retributionshipping chapter- along with a bit of Faithshipping and some Akiza/Jack rivalry, with a small side of Crow humor.

Disclaimer: There's no possible way I can own YGO 5D's if the only words I can speak in Japanese are hello, goodbye, and curse words.

~(-)~

Chapter 4: Secrets and Memories

~(-)~

We were all heading back to the Obelisk blue dormitory, and not one of us spoke.

How could we? Our mouths were slick and unable to speak with this new information. The five of us were Signers, and had the ability to awaken the Crimson Dragon, a great dragon with the force to rival the vampires. All I felt pulsing through my veins was awe.

"You better not tell Carly about this, Jack," Yusei warned.

He didn't reply for a while. Our steps echoed in the empty hallways.

"Carly isn't another soul. We are one and the same," he said coldly.

"Director Goodwin said not to tell another soul. What he meant was another person, Jack," Crow told him gently. "You know what he means."

"I will never keep a secret from her," Jack swore, with his hands curled into tight fists. "My relationship with Carly will never go through regrets."

I and the other three just stared at the back of his thick head.

Nevertheless, he stayed silent when we got to the main hall of the Obelisk Blue dormitory, where Carly was.

"What did the Headmaster need?" Carly asked, her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and her nose literally glued in her book.

We all waited for Jack to say something, but in those few seconds his lips were sealed shut.

"He just needed to talk about our grades," Sherry calmly explained. "No biggie."

She lied so easily, the fib went through her lips like smooth water. I could never lie so effortlessly.

"Mhm, that's interesting… Jack, you should read this book! It's so good!"

His expression seemed to sour at the prospect of deceiving his girlfriend, but in a second it cleared as he sat down next to her with his signature smirk. Then his arms went around her shoulders. Protection.

"_Pride and Prejudice_, huh?" He said. "Seems like your type of book. Think you relate to any of the characters? I think I'm Mr. Darcy."

Giggles followed that statement, and Yusei, Sherry, Crow and I quickly left to keep our sanity.

Once we were in the other side of the main hall, with no people around us, we began to talk.

"Do you think he's going to tell her?" It was me speaking.

"Jack's not the kind to break a promise. He takes promises like the ones he just took really seriously," Yusei murmured.

"But he just technically made two," added Sherry. "He didn't complain when Goodwin said not to tell anybody, but he also said he'd never lie to Carly. Those are two contrasting oaths. He'll have to break one to keep the other."

"Yusei, you've known him the longest. What do you think he'll do?" I asked.

"I honestly have no idea," my blue-eyed friend responded. "He tries to never break a promise ever since he accidently hurt me through one, yet he makes a lot of them. I'm not sure what matters more: his word to us and the director or his girl."

The minutes following his words were awkward and stretched.

"Well," said Crow lazily, "I'm hungry. I'm off to steal some food from the kitchens."

With that, he was gone. I followed his lead.

"Well, I'm off to my room," I tried to say cheerily. "I'll be practicing my sword throwing with air."

They were left off to do their own things, and for a second I was jealous.

Then again, I comforted myself- Yusei and Sherry would never be together. The two were too alike, really- they were both fighters and had determination that would get them through anything. They wanted someone different to be their partners for life.

Would that someone for Yusei ever be me? I met him in my fifth year here at Atlas Academy, and when I was still troubled by my powers…

Sighing, I closed the door to my room then leaned against it, rushed away by a memory.

~(-)~ 7 YEARS AGO ~(-)~

"_Akiza, calm down!"_

_A nine year old Carly was trying to calm down a furious ten year old Akiza who was sent eye daggers to a twelve year old Jack. They were in the middle of dueling class, and it was finally the end of Akiza's clash with her violet eyed enemy. While Akiza was erupting with anger because she'd lost, Jack's fangirls were fanning around him. Carly wanted to do so, too, but her loyalty to her friend made her stay put. It was always like this, with Akiza and Jack at each other's throats…_

"_Nobody insults my dragon, you filth!" she screamed to Jack. "I'm gonna sic her on you and then you'll see how powerful she is!"_

"_My Red Dragon Archfiend is the most powerful," he replied smoothly, all while smiling toothily. "Your dragon stood no chance to him."_

"_I'm gonna pummel you to a pulp when Carly lets go of me!" his enemy screeched, with her arms waving and face crumpled up._

"_What's going on here?"_

_An old, but not (yet) ancient Professor Yanagi was walking over to his two arguing pupils._

"_Jack Atlas," he mumbled as he looked at Jack._

"_That's me, and I'm the best!" the blond boomed._

"_And you're having a dispute with Akiza here?"_

"_Sure am! She's mad at me for beating her dragon with mine! But it's just 'cause she's jealous! My dragon's the best! Best ever!"_

"_Really now…"_

"_Yeah! He's the best! And always will be! Nobody can beat him!"_

_The old man rolled his eyes._

"_I would normally say to settle it with a duel, but this happened because of a duel, so…"_

"_I'll duel him again! And this time, I'll use my powers!" yelled the violet haired kid._

_Yanagi frowned._

"_You shouldn't use them in a simple duel, Akiza. Will you be able to control them?"_

"_I will! And I'll use them to beat him to a PULP!"_

"_I don't think you'll be able to. You want to use them to beat him up, and those negative emotions will just make them stronger and harder to control."_

_Just when he was about to forbid her to use them, a silent, confident Sherry tugged on his sleeve, with a grinning Crow behind her._

"_Andore, Breon and Jean are having an argument with Nicolas, Hermann and Has about sport teams again," she explained. "The former thinks that team Unicorn is the best and the latter thinks that team Catastrophe is going to win. Normally I wouldn't mind, but Andore's supposed to be dueling me…"_

_Crow started speaking too._

"_I'm supposed to be kicking Hermann's butt right now," he said, pumping his fist in the air._

"_Not again!" the teacher cried. "This is the fifth time!" He stomped off, forgetting instantly about his other two troubles. _

"_It's on!" the other two cried instantly, once their teacher was gone._

~(-)~TWENTY MINUTES LATER ~(-)~

_Jack Atlas stared at Akiza Izinski, his handsome face scarred just slightly with a rose thorn. It would disappear in a few days, but that wasn't good enough for him._

_His female opponent had lost the duel, but the tension still swirled around in the air around them, thick and choking. Their glares at each other only intensified the mood. Violet against brown._

_Finally the girl with psychic powers turned away._

"_This is not over," she muttered under her breath._

"_Akiza!" Carly said worryingly as the furious girl turned away from her crush._

"_I want to be alone for now," she replied stonily, as she pushed her friend away._

"_Class dismissed!" Professor Yanagi yelled, just in time. Carly looked desolately at her friend who was walking away, then looked again to her crush, who was now conveniently alone. She looked between the two with conflicting emotions, but eventually she ran towards Jack, asking him if he was okay._

_Meanwhile, Akiza was gripping her things so tightly as she walked along the hallway that her knuckles were turning pale. People didn't dare get close to her, not wanting to interfere with her bad aura._

_But one raven-haired duelist walked over to her, and struggled to keep up with her fast gait._

"_Hey," he greeted._

"_Who the heck are you?" she responded rudely._

_He just smiled at her impolite answer._

"_I'm on of Jack's friends."_

"_So you're one of those Enforcer kiddos? Sorry, I'm not interested in your little club."_

"_It's not about that! I just want to apologize for him."_

"_Why are you apologizing? First of all, if he wanted to apologize, then he would need to do it himself. Secondly, I don't even care about his apologies. Thirdly, why would he even be apologizing? Nothing happened to me, except for the fact that he won, which was mostly my fault."_

_The mystery guy chuckled._

"_He didn't ask me to apologize. I'm doing it out of my own will. I know how much of an abrasive person he can be- I've been friends with him since he first came here."_

_Akiza just laughed bitterly._

"_It doesn't even matter that he was an egotistical jerk. Sure, he made my pride feel bad, but it's just my fault for losing to him in the first place."_

"_But admit it, he made it worse."_

"_Why do you even care? Nobody except Carly and Sherry like me anyways. Most people just don't trust me because of my powers."_

"_So what if you can hurt people using duel monsters? That doesn't mean that you're a bad person, right?"_

"_You're not my therapist!"_

"_I was just saying…"_

_He still laughed at her antics anyways. Akiza couldn't help but smile at how determined he was._

"_What's your name anyways?"_

"_I'm Yusei Fudo."_

"_Yusei," she said, then did quotes. "Nosy." Then she spoke normally. "Fudo."_

"_That's one way to put it," he smiled._

_Meanwhile, while those two joked around, Carly was (unsuccessfully) trying to heal Jack's cut. The band-aid wasn't cooperating._

~(-)~BACK TO THE PRESENT~(-)~

In spite of the bitter mood I was in right now, my lips started to curve upwards in a small grin. But my seriousness came back when I got worried around Jack and Carly. Immediately, I opened her door and went back into the Obelisk Blue main hall.

Once I arrived, she saw Jack looking frustrated at a calm Yusei and an annoyed Sherry. Carly was still reading _Pride and Prejudice_, completely absorbed, on the other side of room.

"How long do you expect me to keep this up?" Jack cried angrily, but not so loud that his girlfriend could hear him. "It's killing me!"

"We expect you to keep it up as long as it takes for our secret to come out by other means," Sherry replied icily.

"But you know how I feel about her," he moaned. "You're not supposed to keep secrets from your beloved."

"I know this is hard for you, Jack," I said, butting in. "But we've gotta do this, together, as Signers."

"I hate this," he complained.

"It's hard for me, too," I said. "She's my best friend."

"We'll get through this, as Signers," Yusei said proudly. His words hung in the air for one millisecond.

"Where the heck is Crow? Does it take that much time to stuff his face?" muttered Sherry, ruining the moment.

At that moment, Crow came running in with frosting on half of his face.

"Whash deada mish?"

"That's our Crow," Yusei said, while rolling his eyes at his friend.

~(-)~

Aw, they're so cute when they were little. ^^; You gotta love the Faithshipping/Retributionshipping.

I just think that Akiza would've lost to Jack, and that's what I think. After all, Jack has also been #2 to Yusei, hasn't he? With either Akiza or Crow as third?

As usual, please review! They make me want to continue! =D

And if you could vote on my poll, that'd be helpful. It has to do with another of my stories. ^^

Thank ya for reading!


	6. Chapter 5: Anger and Forgiveness

Here's chapter 6, technically 5!

Thanks for all the reviews! Though this chap is a bit of filler until the teachers chap arrives, it introduces and important charrie.

Disclaimer: YGO 5Ds cannot possibly belong to me if I live in the USA.

~(-)~

Chapter 5: Anger and Forgiveness

~(-)~

It was the day after the five of us had discovered our identities as the Signers. All of us were mostly silent the whole day, and even oblivious Bruno had noticed some change in us. He was about to ask us, but Dark Glass prevented him. Since he was one of the more respected and senior members of the Atlas Academy staff, I guessed he was a member of Yliaster.

When we five had changed out of motorcycle gear, he stopped us before we left.

"Remember," he told us, his voice hardly above a whisper, yet carrying to all of us. "Don't breathe a word to anybody else."

That, of course, made it painfully obvious what group he was affiliated with.

At dinner, Carly didn't even notice our silence. She was busy reading her book under the table, trying not to catch the attention of our eating professors. They all knew that she was reading while eating, but let her off easily because of her bubbly personality.

But some other people did notice.

"Hey, Akiza," purred a voice next to me. Reddish brown hair in a curved hairdo greeted me, along with shining hazel gems.

I turned to see Sayer and his two followers behind him, Liquid and Okita. They were getting up to refill their drinks and happened to stop by.

"Hello, Sayer. What brings the visit?"

My relationship with Sayer was weird. I remember back when I first came to this school he and I had been close, but it'd distanced once Carly came into the picture. The two of us were bonded because we both had the same dueling ability, the curse of being able to inflict pain in the game. But when Carly came, she made me a happier kid and I began to only use my powers when I lost my temper in dueling (which was mostly with Jack). Sayer and I lost our connection. We became acquaintances then, but I still trusted him completely for what he'd done for me, and we had conversation sometimes.

"You seem really quiet today."

Those eyes were staring at me. I had to trust them. I seemed to sink into them, their layers full of endless depth. But then my stomach growled out of hunger, breaking the magic, and I stuck to my instincts and turned back to my food. And to escape.

"Nothing's wrong."

I felt the burn of his glance at the edge of my neck, one spot not hidden by the hair, but then it disappeared. He, Okita and Liquid left to finally get their drinks. Without a goodbye.

"There's something off with that guy."

I turned to Yusei, whose eyes were sharp and observing. He'd watched out whole conversation. Even though my faith and trust in Sayer had faded back a little because of that strange moment, I still defended him.

"We've been friends since I came here, Yusei," I said, stabbing my fork in my meat. "Why don't you believe in me that he's a good guy?"

"Tell me that he didn't just stare at you like a creep."

I remained silent. I didn't know that he saw that.

"Don't get too close to him," he warned. "I've had bad feelings about him for a while, but this cuts it."

"Yu-"

"And even if you still think that he's supporting you, maybe he's changed. You told me that when you first met that he convinced you to join this club called the Arcadia Movement. It was made up of people who had psychic powers like you and him. Isn't that strong for a bunch of eight-year-olds? And then when you left, he got a whole bunch of halflings with psychic powers and began to revolt. He has strong vampire blood, too."

With that, he left the table, ignoring the fact that we had to go to Goodwin in a few minutes time.

My psychic powers threatened to lurch within me, but I tried to keep calm.

"I lost my appetite."

The other four still at our table, minus Carly, stared at me. I shook away their glances and left.

When I got to the bedrooms, Yusei was still a good distance in front of me. He knew I was there, but just kept going. I got closer. He opened the door. I could see the two beds, one belonging to Jack, the other belonging to him, and the various Duel Runner posters displayed, along with the theme of black. But the gateway was closing. Yusei was going in. That was when I caught up, when he was almost through the doorway. My hand grazed his. Time slowed. The man in front of me turned his head.

Those blue eyes stared at me, deep as the rhythms of the ocean. At once they turned from relentless to soft.

He was too quick to forgive.

"I'm sorry, Yusei," I muttered, hanging my head, with a faint blush delicately placed across both cheeks.

"It's…it's fine. I just overreacted."

"It's my fault for defending him."

"But it's your life, Akiza. I can't control it."

"You can't, but you can help me make the right decisions."

Yusei, at my statement, then backed out of the doorway, into the hall. He closed the door.

"If that bastard tries anything," he vowed, "I'll make sure that there's hell to pay."

Those words made my heart thud. I looked at him, he with the black spiked hair, he who was so good in close combat, dueling, and riding, the guy who apologized for his friend when it was my fault anyways. I felt a tiny tendril of fear snake its way into my heart, and I wished that for the rest of my life that Yusei would always be my companion, not enemy.

In one second I just seemed to zone out, hearing the two of our hearts beating in unison.

Yusei broke the silence.

"I think we'd better go to the Director's office," he said. "It's about time."

"Let's head out."

~(-)~

It'll be time to meet the instructors next chapter. There are three of them; you can probably guess you they are. And if you still can't- they're members of Yliaster. That should do it for the hints.

As for Sayer's age, here it is:

Format:

Character name: Current age (age they came to Atlas Academy) (how long they've been at Atlas Academy)

Sayer: 19 (6) (13)

Oh, and I didn't mean that Dark Glass is a member or Yliaster in the real anime. (No way that's true!) I was just doing what seemed to be right for this fic. It's my plot!

Also, Liquid and Okita are real characters, just not in the show. They're charries in the DS game Yu Gi Oh 5D's World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia.

Updates might be slow because of summer.

Please review!


	7. Chapter 6: The Three Instructors

Hi all! Here's another update!

Disclaimer: YGO 5Ds cannot possibly belong to me if I don't live in Japan.

~(-)~

Chapter 6: The Three Instructors

~(-)~

"You're on time."

Headmaster Goodwin stared at the five people, including me, entering his room with grim expressions. He smiled wryly before lifting himself up from his seat and walking over to us.

We are stared, watching his every move. If it had been anybody but Rex, he would've been nervous. But he wasn't such a shy, attention-hating person. The grey-haired man was raised to be powerful and almighty- he flourished when in the spotlight, and even when people didn't look at him, he was still plotting to no end.

"For you four," Rex explained slowly,"I've made sure to get excellent tutors. They are the best teachers Yliaster has to offer."

I stared at the man. He seemed to love being dramatic, but he was good at raising suspense.

"Luciano, come on out."

From the distance in between Rex and the signers came forth a short figure, cloaked in white, with a ring around his neck, floating. He'd been leaning down, but now he looked up and his hood fell back. Luciano had the face and body of a child, but the stature of an adult was rooted in his bones. Long metallic red hair swept around his neck to his mid-back, almost coiling like a snake. One of his eyes, the left one, had a silver eye guard.

"I'll be teaching you two, the ginger and the blond guy in the art of strength and speed."

The kid laughed in a scary and high-pitched fashion.

"Believe me, I'm good at it."

The headmaster frowned slightly at his bothersome laugh, but ignored it in favor of letting the second teacher step forward.

A young-looking, but not as much as the first teacher, man came forth without Goodwin's permission. Silently he swept his hand over his head, knocking over his own white hood. Crazy, untamed silver was revealed, and a piercing red eye that locked onto Yusei and me. The other, the left one, was covered with an eye guard just like Luciano.

"My name is Placido. The job I have is to tutor the two of you that need help in close and far combat."

His cold, emotionless tone chilled the room before Goodwin decided to let loose the final mystery person.

"You can come out, Jose."

A huge man stepped out of the shadows, with his hood remaining. He had a long beard, huge grey eyebrows that managed to conceal his right eye, and a grey mouthpiece. It was obvious he was much older than even the combined age of the two people that had been introduced before him.

"I will be keeping on my hood."

There was no trace of mercy in that statement- here was a man who wasn't afraid to raise doubts as long as nobody contradicted him. This guy was definitely the leader of them.

Rex smiled happily at the three tutors, and then turned to the Signers, grinning as if sharing with himself a private joke.

"What's so funny?" Sherry demanded.

His chuckles stopped, and the man became morose once more.

"These are your three instructors- they'll be training you to be even better in your arts of battle, so that you may be ready for the upcoming invasion."

He fiddled with the bottom of his coat in anxiety.

"However, don't forget- you will be taking the defensive during this time."

With that, the school's most powerful man stepped back and let the three other members of Yliaster take the stage.

Placido snapped his fingers. Instantly three doors opened up in Goodwin's office- two to the left of the headmaster's desk, one to the right. Luciano grinned like an idiot and pointed to one of the two doors on the left.

"The ginger and the blond come with me!"

With that, he let one yet another laugh, and smiled gleefully as he led Crow and Jack into the first room.

"I can't believe we're stuck with this dork," Crow muttered as he left behind Jack.

Placido motioned to Yusei and me.

"We'll be going to the second room," he said quietly. "Follow, please."

I looked at Yusei, and they both headed towards that room. Suddenly, I felt the need to clutch at his hand- there was something remotely _cold_ about the three newcomers and it was uncomfortable to look at them. But I didn't do that. There was no need to hold his hand like a little girl- even with my insecurities about things.

Once they entered the doorway, Placido closed the door behind us with a flick of his fingers. The room was pure white and infinite- all you could see was the tiles stretching off in every direction. No walls were in sight, and the door where we'd come in had seemingly disappeared.

"Akiza Izinski and Yusei Fudo," Placido sighed. "Jose said not to tell anything about me, but I as a teacher feel the need to."

I didn't reply as she looked into those cold, nearly dead red eyes. They were sad and unforgiving, as if the fire in them had gone out, as if there was something missing that needed to be there.

"I'm not human or vampirian or even a mix of the two, like most of the people in this school," the cloaked man remarked. "I, Luciano and Jose are creatures from a different world, parallel to yours but with many different destinies given to people."

I didn't want to believe him, but there was something in his words that said that he was telling the truth. Sadness in there that made anything possible.

"I'm a cyborg, android, whatever you want to call me. In the world that I came from, we were worshipped as the children of God. Humans were mere servants, obeying His rules listlessly. Vampires, werewolves, what you speak of here- they didn't exist there. But there were five Signers in that dimension, just like here.

But in that world, the humans were gaining power and we lost some. The Signers were in charge of the revolt. I and my two comrades were assigned to task to bring them down, but we failed. I was the only one to really fall, and Jose and Luciano restored me. I don't remember the parts from before I was rebuilt, but I know that parts of me that existed then are gone now. I'm only a ghost of my original person, Placido. Right now, everyone describes me as cold and calculating, but with a temper that never explodes. Yet, when Luciano makes a foolish joke about me, he looks at me, expecting a harsh garb while I just stare accusatively.

I won't be able to teach you as well as Jose and Luciano, I'm afraid. They are full of spirit and drive, while I'm hollow as an abandoned beehive. But I do have skills that make yours look delicate and miniscule. My job here is to strengthen yours, while letting you two realize what your destinies are to be."

Placido let his words ring in our ears for a moment. I sensed a deeper meaning in his words, a warning. He was telling us to never do what he had done, made a mistake that could never be taken back. But this was hard to take in. Our teacher wasn't human or vampire- werewolf, even- and instead was a robotic creature. Yet… in my time at Atlas Academy I'd learned to accept the impossible. I'm a half-vampire half-human, and I can deal real damage when I'm doing a simple card game. This is my life.

"Well," Placido said slowly. "It's time to start. I'll first see what you two can do without weapons. But I warn you two- even though I may not be as good a teacher as Jose and Luciano, don't expect pity from me. I am a harsh android."

Within one second, he slid backwards a good distance from us and smiled a snakelike grin.

"Hurt me until I say 'Merci'. It should be easy, it's two against one."

Yusei leaped forward, throwing out a punch towards his head. Placido ducked, and aimed a punch towards his abdomen. But my raven-haired battling partner had expected that. He turned away before Placido could strike his target. The two were doing some sort of twisted dance. I wished to join, but it was not yet my time.

The two continued fighting for a while, each exchanging blows and dodging. Placido had evened out skills- good at defense, good at offense, and not easy to get intimidated or angry. Yusei was the same, but I could tell that the robot opposing him was slightly taking the upper hand. It was a fight to land the first punch, but then Yusei was caught in a bad position, with Placido having a strong grip on his right arm. Instantly the duelist was thrown away, and landed on the ground beside me with a cough.

"I got this."

To be honest, I wasn't the best in close combat and worked better with the advantage of surprise and with a weapon, but this was the best I could do at my level. I came at Placido with a fake left, and then swung to the right aiming to hit him in the chest with her hand. He turned in time for me to just uselessly hit him in the upper shoulder, which caused him no pain and my hand to waver. My teacher used his elbow to strike me away with the force of a bullet. I in turn skidded to the floor next to Yusei, who was breathing as heavy, or even more so, than me. I'd lasted a lot shorter than him. Damn.

Placido shook his head, and then looked back up.

"I didn't expect any less," he said in a monotone voice. "You two came up to my expectations, nothing more, nothing less."

Deep disappointment filled me. I didn't expect him to worship my skills or anything, but I at least thought that he'd be impressed. We were the best five fighters for the school. Then again, Placido was a robot that had lasted a long time and had witnessed a lot. He'd most likely fought people who had double the tricks up his sleeve than me.

"Still," he said. "For children your age, it's impressive. But since you are Signers, the expectation bar has been raised. Live up to what I expect."

I and Yusei stared at the un-humanoid being. This guy was harsh. Harsher than our other teachers, and more skilled by miles.

"Come on," the cloaked man said, almost as if responding to my very thoughts. "We still have a half hour left."

I didn't even ask how he knew the time before I continued battling him- I just accepted that he was that kind of guy.

~(-)~

One more blow, and I fell backwards onto the tiled floor. One more punch and Yusei went down too. But unlike the time thirty minutes ago, Placido was breathing hard too, huffing with his hands on his knees. However, he was recovering a lot faster than us because of his robotic body.

"You've… improved… a lot…" Placido let out. "You… can go back now."

_How_? I thought. When we'd entered this room, the door had disappeared.

"Right… I forgot…"

Placido, with one more heavy breath, stood up straight and took out a long sword from its sheath.

"Luciano stole my original, but this one works fine. Sometimes, it skids a little when opening portals, but that's the only complaint I have."

With one slash he ripped through the tissue of the air where the doorway had been. A door came through the opening he made and swung open, giving us a view of Goodwin's office.

I stared at Yusei while breathing heavily on the floor.

_What in the world…?_

Sure, I was willing to believe that Placido was a robot… but this? By creating this portal… thing, he was defying so many rules of space and time and whatnot. I was more apt in the classes of dueling, Duel runner training, and battling, but I paid attention in my other classes and I was more than capable of knowing 'possible' from 'impossible'.

Placido turned towards us, with a knowing smirk.

"You have the typical reaction, Akiza. These swords, the ones Luciano and I own… they've been… changed to be like no swords ever before. These swords can do amazing things- they can defy the rules of logic, and can also be used for bloodshed."

Dazed, Yusei and I stepped through the door into Goodwin's office. Crow, Jack and Sherry had just stepped out also- all three had surprised expressions just like me.

"That midget is more than he looks," Jack mumbled. "He's good with a sword." There was a cut on his cheek that looked like it had bled a little bit. Crow was a bit bruised, but nothing worse- and Sherry was fine, because she hadn't done anything physical.

"Were the five good students?" Rex asked.

All three instructors nodded- even Luciano stopped jumping around for a second.

"Good," responded the headmaster. "You may return to your dormitory now, you five."

We all turned to leave, but then Jose's voice halted us.

"If you ever need to refer to us in your everyday life, refer to us as the Terrors."

_The Terrors?_

I and the others headed out, but there was a silence between all of us. It wasn't awkward, just… contemplative.

_What would those three have done to deserve a name like that?_

"One thing's for sure," Sherry said, her voice barely audible as we neared the Obelisk Blue dorms.

"I don't ever want to get in those threes' way."

~(-)~

Whoo! Longest chapter yet, and the three Terrors make their introduction. They'll be sure to pop up in later chapters too, but they aren't major characters.

If you have a question about Placido- yeah, you may say he's OOC, but look at the part where I described him. He stated that in his past life, something happened where he 'died' and was rebuilt. Doesn't that sound familiar? If you've been keeping up to date with the show, you know how Placido got torn apart. I guess this is just me making a reference to that and using it as a chance to make Placido different. The idea? Well, part of the credit goes to the great users at the Janime forum, where this topic was discussed. (I know that in the anime Placido somehow rebuilt himself, but that plot twist doesn't apply to this fanfic.)

If you look closely, one of Placido's statements is a bit of a foreshadow. See it for yourself.

Once, Placido also mentioned bees. That is also a reference to something in the show.

Well, that's a long enough author note. Over and out, and please review!

EDITING NOTICE: I realized at this time that I complete forgot to explain the issue of blood for halflings, I fixed that. In the second chapter, third paragraph I added two sentences to explain bloodlust. I would recommend looking over that. =)


	8. Chapter 7: Budding Roses

Chapter 7! Whoohoo! From now on, I won't have many chapters pre-written (unlike before) so I might update even slower. ;_; Sorry.

Thanks everybody for the reviews! And hits! And for everything! Huntress passed the 2,000 hits mark! –fangirl squeal-

Disclaimer: YGO 5Ds cannot possibly belong to me if I don't live in Japan.

~(-)~

Chapter 7: Budding Roses

~(-)~

Today was the morning after the rough training session- I wouldn't say that my arms and legs felt perfectly normal, but it didn't bother me too much. My body was used to hard work… I did live in a halfling school after all. And there was a nice breakfast to greet meet after my waking up at 8:00 by an alarm clock (Carly's Hello VampCat one), French toast. Currently I was seated at my table with Carly, while the rest of the gang (Sherry and a couple other girls, we sat with the guys at lunch and dinner) were getting their food. Suddenly, a loud-voiced person behind me that wasn't my glasses-wearing friend revealed their position with a load greeting directed to me.

"_Good Morning_, Akiza!"

For a moment, I expected to turn to only see an ash brown haired man placing his chin on my shoulder in a compromising position. But the voice was feminine, even though it had the same snarky tone.

Instead, I turned to see the glamorous blond Angela smiling at me like a catnipped cat in a pose that would only work in a photo shoot.

"Whattaya want?" I said rudely.

It wasn't normal for me to be this out of character and bitchy, but this girl certainly asked for it. She wasn't my direct enemy- but she'd taken advantage of Carly many times over, and Carly's enemies were mine too. It was impossible to count how many times innocent little Carly had accidentally let some information slip about her new scoop because of Angela's butting in. But… well… it wasn't like she did it intentionally. She was just a naturally malicious and nosy girl.

"Sorry Angela, that was a bad way to greet you." I smiled serenely, trying to make amends. "I've just been having a rough morning." (It was slightly true. My hair took a few more minutes to roll up than usual.)

Ugh, I didn't like to be nice to her, but she hadn't been even that nasty to Carly recently, so I had no excuse. Obviously the Carly sitting across from me still hadn't forgiven her yet, because she'd even set down her latest book in order to listen to our conversation and possibly interrupt it.

"It's OK, Akiza!" That blond smiled her stupid like fake smile. "I just came to get a new scoop for _HaLFLiNG! Weekly._"

Yeah, the reason for Angela's and Carly's rivalry is their two newspapers that they're reporters for. Angela's the star reporter for _HaLFLiNG! Weekly_, which is our school's non-official newspaper. They tend to be more of a magazine; with major gossip articles and some language that the teachers don't want representing us for the other vampire academies around the world. But it's the more popular newspaper; that's why it sticks around.

And that leads me to _The Atlas Academy Times_, Carly's domain. It's our school's official newspaper, but sadly it isn't as popular as the aforementioned one. It's a lot more G-rated than the total PG-13 material in _HaLFLiNG! Weekly_, which makes it a safer read. Though usually it doesn't have interesting stuff, every once in a while Carly makes a great find and everybody picks up a copy. Sadly, it's rare, and hasn't been happening recently.

But why's Angela coming to me for a scoop? Don't I have 'Carly's property' printed all over me? With that kind of competition and my closeness to Carly, it should be obvious that only Carly and her newspaper crew can get headlines from me.

"Um…"

I stared at the bespectacled girl across from me, who looked a bit worked up. Who wouldn't be? Angela was even doing it in front of her!

Before I could properly reply, Angela continued speaking.

"So, I came for info about why you and your groupies have been disappearing lately for meetings with Goodwin."

I was about to retort when Carly stepped in. I expected her to. That girl gets pissed by Five Anger Activating Factors (the FAAF. She wanted the initials to be JA when planning, but she couldn't think of suitable words. Onto the list.)

1. Jack talking to a girl who is obviously interested. (Prime examples are Mina and Stephanie; Mina is a teaching assistant for our Vampire history teacher Trudge and is a halfling, Stephanie is a barely vampirian waitress to the school's little café, Café la Green. They both love Jack (as in puppy love.))

2. I or any of her other friends are threatened.

3. Angela is being a nosy, nasty scoop hog.

4. Somebody disses her newspaper.

5. (this one is ridiculous, you've been warned.) If somebody steals her glasses when she isn't looking. As in, sleep. (Long story short Crow took her glasses on the night before April Fool's and ended up with a flyswatter mark on his cheek for the rest of the day. Don't ask why, but Carly keeps a flyswatter in her bag at all times for emergency reasons. And, well, even Crow with his bright orange hair can't get through to an armed Carly with bad vision.)

This time, FAAF numbers two and three had been done by the Queen of Nosiness like usual. And of course, with two horrible FAAF actions themselves having been done, it was time for Carly to make her stand.

"Angela, can you please not come to Akiza for news reports? With two competing newspapers in one school, it'd be nice if I could interview the people I wanted to without interruptions. And for now, the five that have been going to the Headmaster for meeting after during study hall have said that they want to be interviewed by me, not you."

Angela stared at her for a moment, nibbling her lip with thought. Then she tossed her locks in an elegant manner over her shoulders with a satisfied smirk.

"It's their problem for wanting an amateur like you to interview them. I'll find plenty better scoops for this week's edition of _HaLFLiNG!_ _Weekly_. See you around, Carly Carmine."

With another hair toss and a fake photo smile for everyone around us, Angela was gone to sit at her breakfast table.

"God, that girl is someday gonna get it," Carly muttered, mostly to herself. Then she continued eating her French toast.

But Angela had mentioned something that I thought Carly would react to. I thought just that my black-haired airhead companion just was not really noticing me and the other Signer's disappearances, but now it seemed liked she was deliberately ignoring the subject. The first time we'd gone to Goodwin's Sherry used a grades excuse, but that one was weak and Carly let it pass because she was reading. But I hadn't told her much about last night, and I'm sure she wanted to know.

"Hey, Carly?" I asked.

Carly looked up with a piece of French toast stuffed in her mouth.

"Hrm?"

This was totally the wrong picture for a serious question, but I had to ask anyways.

"Carly, why haven't you been asking about my and the other four's disappearances?"

The air around us grew thin as a paper sheet, and then in one blow it was back to normal when Carly sighed.

"I thought this wouldn't come up and you'd just blame my air-headedness," she started off, trying to smile but having it crack in half with doubt.

"But really, I noticed when after you guys left and I and Jack were alone. There was something off with him, I realized."

She looked off again, swirly blue glasses still preventing me from seeing her eyes, the gateways to her soul. Yusei and she were very alike in that aspect, that looking to their eyes could tell you everything. But she was hiding them, even from me, her best friend. She hid them from everybody.

"I was going to ask, but a part of me prevented that from happening. Because I decided that I would wait until _you_ decided to tell me. Even though it hurts, and I could use it as a newspaper scoop or something, I want it to turn out that way."

Carly looked at me once this statement was said, and I could feel her cool gaze rest on my rounded face.

"I can tell you still can't tell me. So I'm going to wait."

I felt my chest tightening, feeling that block of pain that had been there ever since I starting keeping the secret inflate in size. My heart banged against my chest in guilt, who was I? Hiding a secret from my best friend? I should've created an adequate, very appreciative response to Carly's kindness, but only two words managed to escape my throat in a mangled squeak of my normal voice.

"Thank you."

And something in her renewed smile said that those words were enough.

~(-)~

I held myself in a ball, tears nearly coming out of my eyes but just not making it. The need to cry still panged within my heart, but I kept it at bay. I couldn't cry for such reasons, such selfish reasons. Why was Carly so kind? Such a selfless person, sacrificing her pain so that I could be comfortable. This was why Jack was in love with her. Everybody could tell.

It all started when Yusei beat Jack once, in a duel outside of class. Only a few spectators were there, in the deserted duel area just before 9 o'clock, when their battle came to a close. Both were breathing hard, Jack's glare digging into Yusei's hair like a knife, and my hands held to my chest in shock while Crow and Sherry stared in awe. Carly had missed the preliminaries; she went early to bed being the good girl she was. It would've broken her heart to see that, her crush being defeated by his rival. And so Jack ran, cowardice powering his legs, and wasn't seen until the next day in dueling class.

It wasn't even a duel day; it was a deck analyzing session. But when Jack challenged Yusei with a rigid index finger pointing to his chest, even Yanagi couldn't say no. All of our thirteen-year old selves (with some younger and older pre-teens in the mix) were excited, eager to see a battle between the, at that time, the powerhouses of our class. (Later on, that title got passed to another person, too- me, surprisingly. Crow and Sherry got some attention too, but Carly just didn't have the courage to stand out.)

Crow, Sherry and I had exchanged furtive glances. Knowing Jack, he'd spent the whole of last night fixing up his deck preparing for this, wanting to get his pride back. Because, after all, he was the one who'd been better than Yusei and the rest of us the whole time, and who always gave his best friends Yusei and Crow advice anytime he asked. But now the former was exceeding even his skills, and in his eyes it couldn't possibly be fair.

But the duel ended just like the first, with Jack's life points plummeting to a trodden 0 and with Yusei's still a few hundred. Nobody spoke; nobody had dared to breathe. And then Jack left the ring with an enraged expression, and nobody tried to stop him. Not even our teacher. Yet at that moment the silence was shaken.

"Professor Yanagi, I have to go help him."

And Carly ran off in the direction of our ex-champion, leaving us all more stunned than before. She'd acted so fast, so quick to Jack's pain. She, Carly, who'd never skipped a class in her life except for that one week she was sick, immediately did so to help him.

Professor Yanagi whistled in that moment that she sped out the door.

"Young love," he said.

And for the rest of the day the two were not seen, not even by the then-waitress (fine, waiter) at Café la Green Rally, who claimed that Jack had not come to get his daily ritual of coffee.

But the next day, the two were in class and acted like nothing had happened.

"What happened?" I'd asked.

"Nothing important… I just cheered him up," she'd replied thoughtfully.

The next day, after dueling class had just ended (where we made up the deck studying session), Jack asked- in front of everybody- for Carly to go out with him. And that was a huge deal at the time, especially with Carly being 12 and him being 15, but she'd accepted and they'd been together since with a few bumps along the way.

And my 13-year old self was amazed, but now that I look back I know that Carly's utter kindness was the thing that healed him after his sound defeat. And that tenderness that she provides, with his unbeatable strength, is what makes them perfect together, two melding pieces of a puzzle.

Her endless compassion, devotion- and I'm repaying all that by being a horrible BFF. Dammit, I hate myself.

At that moment, there was a knock at the door.

"May I come in?"

My breath stopped for a second. His oh-so-familiar voice, that kindly figure, was just person I needed to be with right now.

"Come in," I croaked.

He let himself in, blazing eyes instantly taking in my wretched face and crinkled clothes from sitting in one position too long. Yusei was the only guy I'd let in my room, because I knew he wouldn't do anything dangerous or snoop around. Not that a guy like Bruno would snoop around, but I just trusted Yusei just _that_ much more.

My fellow halfling laid himself on the untidy floor, propping up his head to be eye-level with me, enrapturing me with his understanding gaze.

"Did someone do this to you?"

"No," was my muffled answer.

He didn't believe it.

"Sayer?"

I chuckled.

"I wouldn't cry for him, you idiot."

He smiled, a display of warmth.

"Good."

His cerulean eyes scanned me again; saw the invisible tears almost ready to fall.

"Are you beating yourself up?"

Shaking, I nodded. Then I poured out my heart's contents of my day, the torturous classes of dueling class and riding and then having to stuff down dinner and training with him and Placido while I still felt weak and everything, splattered it all on the floor, about how Carly's infinite goodness was tearing me apart. I knew exactly how Jack felt- perhaps not as bad, because they'd gone through hardships of a man and a woman and now they were experiencing another problem. Why was I so upset, when he had it worse, why oh-

"Snap out of it."

He turned my face forcefully to face his, and I realized in my blabbering he'd sat up to be kneeling. And we looked at each other, and something wonderful bloomed in my heart, coming from the seed that had been planted when I first met after my duel with Jack. A sprouting red rose bud had opened, spreading the aroma of gripping, fresh love.

Yusei looked down from my gaze, snapping the intensity in two. My heartbeat slowed down again, and that newfound feeling sank into the recesses of my chest. I realized he was holding my hand.

"I know you have it hard. We have to keep secrets, and that's just the duty of being who we are. I know it's going to be a tough road. That's an undeniable fact. But we all have to get through this, we just have to. We have to accept that this is our duty, that this is something that we'll all do together. Even though we'll get hurt on the path, I know that we'll all be ready. We help each other, and if someone falls, everybody will lend a hand to get them back up. Nobody on my watch is going to have their soul broken in two, whether it's the fault of our enemies or us."

His eyes, ablaze with passion, staring a hole through the floor. There was an awkward few seconds. I didn't know how to respond.

I wiped tears that I didn't know had fallen from my upper cheek.

"You snap out of it this time, Yusei," I teased. "Don't get carried away with your speeches."

He smiled, and everything was alright. We slipped into easy conversation, and didn't discuss the topic of being Signers for a while.

In those few minutes of easiness, I made a promise to myself. I'm going to let that rose in my heart bloom into the most beautiful flower ever that has existed. The thorns are only scars of when I've gone through hardships, and one has been added because of my blaming of myself for Carly's selflessness. But already the flower is opening, in these few moments with Yusei. I'm going to let him make my rose bloom. I'm going to let him tend to my heart. He's going to make that rose the most beautiful flower you ever saw, I swear it.

I swear it.

~(-)~

Oh my, oh my. I did NOT expect this chapter to be this long. At first I wanted it to be just the Angela bit with some Carly angst, and I said what the heck, and added the other 2/3 of what you just saw. My fangirliness-O-meter was exploding with how much Faithshipping I put in. =)

And that bit about Rally being a wait(er)ress? I was looking through a list of 5D's charries on the yugioh wiki, for candidates to be the waitress back when Akiza was 13 (after all, you can't have a 13 year old Stephanie working at a café, that's just not right… underage working whatnot. She's around Akiza's age, right?) and I found Rally, imagined him as a grown-up wait(er)ress serving Jack Blue Eyes Mountain Tea… and you probably know where it went from there. XD

And well, I can't believe this chap has over 3,000 words. My longest chappie ever. Woot!

Another note, I'd be lying if I said Carly's reaction wasn't affected by me reading House of Night: Marked, Stevie Rae's response from Zoey asking why she wasn't questioning about her filled in Mark. The basic idea of Carly responding like that was planted by reading that part of the book, so I'd say that it's a bit of a paraphrased quote if you will. So it wasn't entirely original.

Please review, people! I haven't been asking for it lately, but I always appreciate some constructive crit with your review too. That helps me become a better writer. =) Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 8: Class

Chapter 8 (9, technically)! I still wonder about how long this is gonna be- after all, I haven't even begun to dig in the fresh meat of the plot yet.

Thanks for the reviews so far! =D The last chapter had more feedback than I expected. Reviewers, you are awesome.

Disclaimer: YGO 5Ds is not mine, I am a mere fan. A crazy fan, but still a fan.

~(-)~

Chapter 8: History Class

~(-)~

"Today, we're going to discuss the first vampire vs. halflings war," Mina announced.

This was followed by a string of cheers and smirks. This was what we'd been waiting for ever since we'd begun taking this class.

I was in History, which is my second period class. My schedule is the following: there's breakfast at 7:00, Vampire Biology, this class, Self Protection/Wariness, Fighting: Select Classes (mine's distance attacks, like arrows), Lunch (12:00), Dueling, Fighting: Overall and Duel Runner Training. Then, we have free time (we can take special extra classes; I take music, where I play the violin), dinner (5:00), twenty minutes to rest our stomachs, study hall, and then free time until we decide to go to bed. Each class (including study hall) lasts forty-five minutes, with each meal and free time blocks lasting twenty. There are a ten minutes in between everything so that we have time to move around (or change into duel runner gear for riding class, etc.) Classes take place during weekdays, and during weekends we just have the same meal times and in between are free to do whatever, hanging out with friends, doing projects, all that jazz. You can even hang out with people who aren't in your dorms on weekends and during free time- the music classes I take are all-ages.

Classes take place with people who've been at Atlas Academy for about the time as you (I'd say about a five-year span, aged right now from 16-21, a few of them have left out classes to go into Level Two training), not by the dorms, so I do it with Carly, Yusei, Jack, Crow, Sherry, and roughly ten other halflings. While Sayer isn't in my age group, I met him around the dorms.

In History, we learn pretty much about the history of vampires. History classes start once we enter Ra Yellow, because you don't really want to scare the toddlers about blood stories. A lot of classes only start once you get into Ra Yellow, but some you go through all the time, such as Dueling. (But even when people aren't in the same dorms, they can still hang out on weekends and stuff, and free time after the classes are over. The music classes I take are for all ages.)

But only in Obelisk Blue do we really learn about how harsh the vampires have been. In Ra Yellow, we just learned about the myths how vampires were created and how they've been in the past few centuries (it was almost like our literature classes). But now, we're learning about the vampire _wars_. This is the good stuff. So far, it's just been about the skirmishes and tiny battles. But the first vampire war- that's what we've all been looking forward to. (And by all, I mean _all_. Even Carly was excited. I guess we're all violent somehow, ha.) There isn't even a second vampire war- this is the only big, bad one.

We haven't really learned much about the first vampire war yet. Trudge and Mina (the two teachers; Mina is the assistant and is also Carly's love rival, Trudge is an ex-officer for the Public Security Department) have both given numerous hints about how serious it was, but we don't even know the statistics.

"Open your new textbooks to page 5," Trudge ordered.

An unfamiliar textbook lay in front of me. Our teachers didn't want us to find out too much information about the vampire way before we started, so they got two separate books. Our previous one had been about small battles, and here was the one about the legendary battle.

On page five was an illustrious watercolor painting, sized smaller to be textbook size. Five halflings lay on the right; stained with the blood of battle- I could tell they were halflings by their eyes. They weren't smothered with bloodlust. Several different weapons laid in their hands, each different to suit their needs.

The main halfling was a male brunette; he had a rugged, brace face and a long weapon in his hand that I guessed was a spear.

Two women were to his right, one was a tall, leaning strawberry blond and the other was a small, dark-haired female. The strawberry blond held two small knives in hand, and had more hanging from a belt in several sheathes. Next to her, the raven-haired woman held a long, thin sword, not unlike a fencing weapon.

Two men were to the main man's left. One was a dark-skinned man with pitch black hair, holding a large blunt sword that looked really heavy that had two spikes above the handle. The final man had long blond hair tied back into a ponytail, and held two daggers in each of his hands.

They were all older than us, each of them was at least twenty, and all were wearing battle gear similar to what we wore in our fighting classes. Only difference was, theirs were covered in blood.

But on each of their arms was a red, burning mark. Marks of the Signers.

Something familiar shuddered within me. I looked to the other half of the page, where their enemies were. And, as I suspected, they were the Dark Signers.

There were seven vampires with fangs extended were leaped towards them, stilled in this piece of art. Rage flitted across each of their faces, eyes were completely dark with a tinge of scarlet, and each of their cloaks was marked with symbols I recognized from the Nazca Lines. Each of their cloaks, also, had a color theme for their mark from the Nazca lines. They were their Earthbound Immortals. Each of them also had a mark on their arm that was purple, shaped like their Immortal.

"These were the warriors of the first battle," Mina said calmly, voice like clear water. "They were called the Signers and Dark Signers."

"While none of the names of those Signers are known, one of them is said to be Rick Atlas, founder of this school."

I looked at the lean, dark-skinned man next to the brunette. My gut instinct told me he was Rick.

My eyes wandered to the other Signers. I looked closely at the strawberry blond that was to the right of the main man, and once I saw her mark a cold, raw feeling clawed at my stomach. She had the Front Claw. That woman was my corresponding Signer of the past.

And somehow, Mina's voice had changed. Her stoic tone remained, but now the voice coming out of her mouth was an octave lower. I knew that the past owner of the Front Claw Mark was speaking.

I looked to the other Signers in the room. But I made sure not to look deeply at Yusei's face… I still felt a bit weird about yesterday. Being close to him made my chest tingle in a way that I'd ignored until now.

But besides him, the other three Signers were in this room too. I knew it wasn't a coincidence that all of us were in the same class together. All of them looked spooked, and I knew I looked the same. Trying not to get caught looking at each other, we buried out heads in our textbooks.

I heard some kids snickering to my right.

"What is this crap?" "Is she making this stuff up?" "God, this is stupid!"

I tensed, immediately covering my arm that was etched with the mark of the Crimson Dragon's Front Claw. Our school uniform covered the area where our marks were etched. Nobody knew that they were there besides us, and they never glowed bright like when we first got them. And we all knew that were to keep being a secret.

As Mina continued speaking, the ancient bearer of the Front Claw continued speaking to my ears.

"The artist of the watercolor painting you see really did research into the first vampire war that took place centuries ago. All the things you see- battleground, Signers, and what they looked like are true."

Now Trudge began to speak, and had his own voice, not one of the past. I was relieved somehow.

"But otherwise that, we know little else. Sure, we know what the consequences of the war were. We know that it ended in a tie, and that both halflings and vampires died, along with innocent humans. We know that after this battle, the vampires almost went away, and have never bothered us again like in the beginning. _But we know nothing else_."

It wasn't his voice anymore. Trudge's voice had gone lower and now his voice seemed to boom across the room.

I didn't know how I knew, but I knew it was Rick Atlas speaking.

"It's mysterious. No humans remember the war, there's no memory of it besides the textbooks._ It's like someone, or something, has deliberately hid everything from us. It's like something altered history_.

We don't know who the heck these Signers are. We don't know any of their names besides Rick. We don't know why they have glowing red tattoos, and why these so-called Dark Signers have purple ones. And why the vampires backed off after this."

After his words ended there was silence. Even those kids who were snickering before didn't breathe a word.

Somebody raised their hand.

"Yes, Breo?"

The short-haired blond guy was staring holes into Trudge's eye sockets.

"How do you know all this is real then?"

"That's a good question," sighed Mina.

All of us stared at the teacher and his assistant in the front of the room.

"There were many casualties. Not so humans, but halflings. I bet that nearly a quarter of us were wiped out." Our male teacher said this sternly. Almost like a warning.

A hush of awe blanketed the room.

"That is why Rick Atlas started this school. So that the remaining halfling children could gather and learn. There are other reasons, too. But you'll learn about them later."

"Flip the page to page six," Mina said after that.

The tense air that had been there before had faded. I heard more whispering, on contrast to the dead silence that had choked the room before.

I looked to Sherry. We exchanged a pact with our eyes.

Goodwin would have to talk to us about this.

~(-)~

When we arrived at his office, he wasn't there. Only Jose was.

"Where are Goodwin, Luciano and Placido?" Yusei asked.

"The headmaster left this morning," Jose replied, "with those two as escorts. Where he was going… he needed protection."

"Tell him to come back! We have important things to ask him!" Jack barked.

His one eyebrow lowered down, giving Jose an impatient look.

"He is the headmaster. He has more important things to take care of that his students, even if they are the Signers."

"We understand," Crow responded, before Jack could say anything rude.

"What were you going to ask him anyways?" our lone teacher asked. "I might be able to answer your questions."

"Probably not," I said. "We wanted to find answers that our regular teachers couldn't find- about the first vampire war."

Jose stared at me, as if seeing if that was my real question. Then his gaze passed along all of us in turn.

"_Do not ask questions like this again._"

Suddenly, his voice was full of anger and grit. We didn't know what we had done wrong.

"The first vampire war was a mistake. It was supposed to be erased, but we failed. Not everything had changed."

What was he talking about? Erasing? Changing the past?

"I will tell you one thing, Signers of this world: in the universe we once lived in, when our power was at its height, the Terrors were able to alter history and change things. We aimed to do this in this world; we tried to erase the first vampire war, so that it could not happen again.

But we made a mistake. Evidence still lived on, and we wasted our power. So now there is still evidence of the first war, but not memories.

And since we made that mistake, another war will happen. And Goodwin is looking forward to it, he has made plans."

The last part was barely above a whisper, and it hung in the air like a thread.

"We are not good people, the Terrors. Our name proves that. Nor is Goodwin. Do not put your faith in us, for we cannot be trusted. There will be no lessons tonight, or for the following week. The Headmaster will contact you when he gets back."

And that was the end. We found ourselves meekly walking out into the hallway out of the headmaster's room. Our breaths were shallow. We had been told something monstrous.

Yusei was the first to speak in the dimly lit hallway.

"We have to find out what they did, unlock those cryptic words."

And we all nodded to our leader. Because that was what he was.

~(-)~

Hey people! Sorry for the wait in writing and uploading the chapter, I've been lazy the last three weeks.

If you haven't been keeping up to date with the anime, you might not get what I mean by the changing the past thing. My apologies for anybody who didn't get it. ^^;

If you have any more suitable names for the title of this chap, please tell me. I couldn't think of anything really fitting.

I'll try to update soon to make up for my lateness this week! Please review! =)


	10. Chapter 9: The Other World

Chapter 9 (10, technically)! I still wonder about how long this is gonna be- after all, I haven't even begun to dig in the fresh meat of the plot yet.

Thanks all reviewers! Sorry for the lateness, school is a pain~

**IMPORTANT NOTICE**, _please read_:

So, in the first chapter I mentioned Twilight, and a lot of people assumed that this story was going to go much like Twilight. It is _not_.

The only similarity I was saying was that these two have the same _format_. Like the book Twilight, this story will have the prologue taking place in the center of the story, not as an actual prologue. I only used Twilight as an example because many people have read it.

Yusei is not meant to be Edward, nor is Akiza supposed to be like Bella. This is not Twilight with the 5D's charries. I don't even like Twilight that much. This is my own fanfiction, with my own plot with some 5D's elements such as the Signers, Dark Signers, and the same charries.

Thank you for reading; I just wanted to clarify that.

Disclaimer: YGO 5Ds is not mine; I am just a teen writing fanfiction. Say it with me, fan-fic-tion.

~(-)~

Chapter 9: The Other World

~(-)~

"Who can we ask about… whatever Jose was saying?" Sherry asked. "It's clear that he won't talk to us anymore. The headmaster would probably tell him if we went to him, and I don't know about the other two Terrors."

We were lounging in Yusei and Jack's room, after study hall. Carly had disappeared soon after we said hello from getting back from Goodwin's office, and a twinge of guilt entered me. It had been a week since we started going to the headmaster's office, but I still hadn't gotten used to keeping things from her. It just wasn't right, doing that. Sometime, when I was ready, I was going to tell her.

But right now, I had things at hand that had to be taken care of.

"Have any of your teachers," Sherry said, taking me out of reverie, "told you anything about their past?"

Sherry had taken up post as questioning us about our lessons with the Terrors. Right now she was sitting on the black leather chair next to Yusei's computer, while the rest of us sat on the ground or on beds. Jack and Yusei were leaning against the wall on Jack's bed, while Crow and I were leaning against it on the floor.

"Nope," said Crow with bite. "Luciano didn't say anything about the past. He just started us right away with fighting."

Jack nodded in agreement.

But…

"Akiza," Yusei said, voice lined with repressed excitement. "Remember when we were with Placido in our first training session?"

I remembered quite well.

"Placido mentioned something about his past."

Suddenly the other three were all ears to Yusei and me.

"Yeah," I said, after biting my lip. "Placido said that before he went here, this world, he lived in a different universe that was a lot like ours. That had us in it."

"Impossible," Jack muttered, mostly to himself. "There cannot be two Jack Atlases!"

"He said that they weren't good in that world, and that they were children of God or something and that somehow he was destroyed. Placido doesn't remember anything before that. He said that after he was restored, because apparently he's a-" I gulped, hoping that they would believe this- "robot, that they went here."

It took a moment for it to sink in. Crow looked especially bewildered.

"Then we'll have to ask Luciano," Sherry said to the quiet four of us. "There's no other option."

"But do you think that he'll help us?" I questioned. "He has no reason to.

"There's no other option," Crow said, repeating Sherry's words.

I sighed.

"It'll have to do," Yusei consoled.

~(-)~

Ten days later, the headmaster and his two escorts still weren't back. Every day in the first few minutes of study hall we waited, every second passing by like a turtle crawling, awaiting the headmaster or Jose's message that they were finally back. It would have to be during study hall, during any other time they would be interrupting our classes or our own free time.

Right now, we were walking to study hall after dinner. When we arrived at the main hall, I checked my watch.

"What do you suppose Jose meant by contacting us?" I asked. It'd been bothering me.

"Y'know… I never really thought of that," Crow replied unsurely. "Maybe one of our teachers will go over to us?"

"That's plausible," Sherry mused. "But I'm still not sure."

I noticed someone coming over to us. It was the clown-like guy, Lazar. From what I could recall, he was Rex's secretary and second-in-command at the school. Why was he here? He had no business in these parts.

My eyes narrowed. Was he one of the members of Yliaster?

As he got over to us, he noticed everybody staring at him. It had to be expected; his simple presence usually required explaining, he wasn't supposed to be here… it was also hard to _not_ notice him; he _was_ dressed rather oddly… and had weird makeup on… and strangely styled hair.

"Shoo!" he cried to all the people staring at him. "I have no business with you!"

Yeah, that was a surefire way to make people go away. It obviously did not make people even more curious.

"The headmaster is back," he told us in a slightly commanding voice. "He wants you to go to his office right away."

"Let's go then," Jack said, immediately hopping off the chair he was sitting on. I saw his eyes stare at Carly for a moment, and a soft look was passed in between them. Watching them made my heart soften a little, they were meant for each other.

"I presume you know your way to the headmaster's office?" Lazar questioned us quickly.

We all nodded.

"Then I am of no use here."

With that, he seemed to disappear into thin air.

~(-)~

Jose greeted us with an icy stare once we walked in. Standing beside him were Rex and Placido, but no Luciano.

"Where's the midget?" Crow asked.

Placido's emotionless voice answered him. "He got hurt when we were coming back from the Land of Nazca."

So that's where they went. And if that was where the Dark Signers truly were, then they did need protection.

"He wants to see you," Placido added. "So please enter the door beside me."

With cold grace the robot pulled out his sword and drew a horizontal line in the air beside him, and then stepped away. While Yusei and I speedily went over to go in, the others hesitated.

"Are we supposed to go in that?" Jack said, with a hefty dose of reluctance in his voice.

Sherry frowned, and her voice was almost revolted. "What the heck _is_ that? It doesn't even look safe."

"It's perfectly safe," Yusei said. But his eyes lingered over to Placido's face as if asking _Right?_ The tall robot simply smiled, and no answer rose to his thin lips.

"Whatever," Crow exclaimed, hopping into the line for the portal. "If Yusei says it's safe, then I'm in."

Jack glared menacingly at Crow, but after a short inspection at Yusei's confident face he marched to us until he was behind Crow. As soon as Sherry moved toward us too, Yusei entered, and the rest of us followed.

My breath stopped as I found out where we were. The infirmary. I never came here much because I didn't get hurt often, not even in my fighting classes.

I often took care not to come here. There was something strange about this place that I couldn't identify, some reason in my subconscious that told me not to come here. The reasons weren't clear; I didn't remember anything ever happening here. Perhaps it was the whiteness on the walls that seemed to make everything else dim with its cleanliness. I didn't know why, I just didn't like this place.

I shook my head and continued walking toward where a middle-aged nurse awaited us. She didn't seem particularly surprised to see us walking out of a random portal, so she must know about the Terrors. I had a feeling that many members of the staff at Atlas Academy knew for some reason or another about the Terrors or were affiliated with Yliaster. Perhaps not the younger teachers, like Bruno. Mina and Trudge seemed not to know either; they had been very clueless about the first vampire war, which Jose didn't want us to know about. And if Jose didn't want us to know, then it was probably information that Yliaster wanted to keep to itself.

From what I'd learned so far, Yliaster did not seem entirely good. And I still wasn't sure what my job was, as a Signer. Goodwin hadn't been extremely detailed in his explanation.

Soon our group arrived at a nearly abandoned area of the infirmary, where not many people were around. Most of the student patients were in the area we started out in. It seemed that here was where the secretive injured people were placed.

The atmosphere here was painfully stiff and not welcoming at all. I felt like I was protruding into matters that weren't mine.

Then, at the farthest end of this side of the infirmary, the nurse opened a white door to one of those rooms used only for one occupant. When we were all in, she closed the door behind us and left.

Directly in front of us was a red-haired boy lying in a hospital bed.

We all stopped for a second to stare at him. Here he lay, not regal at all, clothed in hospital garments, and with none of his former outfit on him, his cloak, roller skates, nothing. The eye guard he wore before was gone and instead his two green eyes were visible instead of just one, clouded with pain, and not in any way as clear and sharp as before. His long red hair that fanned out to his left and onto his shoulder seemed to have faded in color, and Luciano's very face seemed sickly pale.

As soon as he saw us he lifted himself up and smirked, and with that expression he seemed to regain some of his arrogance.

"I see you five have made it."

Jack immediately opened his mouth to ask a question, but Luciano interrupted him before one sound could come out.

"Don't bother asking questions, I'm answering everything before I die."

"_Die_?" we all echoed.

His face twisted into a grimace, expressing his annoyance.

"Don't repeat what I said. Yeah, die. Jose will revive me. But if he does, then he'll have to give me even more robotic parts. And I'll lose my memory."

"Just like Placido," I whispered, giving away the fact that my mentor had told us about his past. But it didn't matter right now.

"Just like him." Luciano's voice was still rather neutral, and it seemed that he knew Placido would tell us about his past.

"So you have robotic parts," Yusei murmured. "How much of you is robotic?"

"I would say about thirty percent." His eyes narrowed. "With this kind of injury, I might get boosted up to sixty or seventy."

All of our mouths opened to ask more questions, but Luciano cut us off with a wave of his hand.

"You all take me for granted," he said, voice heavy with vicious bite. "Why should I tell you anything? Why don't I just die and take my memories with me?"

The air grew even colder than before. Luciano smiled, taking in our silence as respect. He enjoyed our pain. There was something in his eyes that told me that he liked to see us respect him and for him to take advantage of us. I knew that this child was not wholly good. Not at all. The part that he was showing right now was terribly evil and calculative.

After the few moments of silence he was satisfied.

"It's because you are Signers. You have been destined to save the world you live in." Those green eyes of his darkened. "Whether it is this world, or the one that I used to exist in."

There was a pause, a few seconds where he waited to see whether or not we would question about his old world. But we were patient, and Luciano smiled at this and with a not completely happy smile he continued his talking.

"In the world I once lived in, there existed the Three Terrors and you Signers. We were the Signer's enemies. When we fought you, you had already defeated the Dark Signers. In the battle, we lost by a sliver. People were hurt. Placido died again."

Again?

"He had died once before, when going against Yusei. That time, his memories remained intact."

Yusei visibly stiffened. I understood. He suddenly got the information that the android who was teaching him used to be his enemy.

"Jose healed Placido, but this time his memories were gone. We left him to learn everything himself. And he learned on his own that he had died, and that we had been defeated by the Signers."

His breath wavered a little.

"I used Placido's sword to open a dimension hole. When I was making it, I just asked for us to be transferred to a new world. And we found ourselves here.

We made a name for ourselves, the Terrors. And somehow, Goodwin found us and took us to Atlas Academy. We found out that he was a member or Yliaster."

"In our former world, Yliaster was something that aimed to destroy the world the make a new one in its place. But this one is different. It has a better purpose- to defeat the Dark Signers- who are much more dangerous in this place."

He sighed.

"I and Jose have found out that the two dimensions we have lived in are different but strangely alike. Both of them have the same people- the Signers, and many others- but your destinies are different."

With the last sentence, he stared at Sherry.

"You weren't one of the Signers in that world. A little girl named Luna was."

Sherry stared at him blankly. "Who was I, then?"

Luciano looked airy for a second, feigning stupidity. He reveled in Sherry's discomfort. Then his face darkened as he smiled a predator's grin.

"At first, you were on the Signer's side. And then you went to ours."

The air grew even tenser. I bit my lip. I wasn't sure whether to believe or not. Everything he was telling us could be lies right now. Yet my gut told me he wasn't. But I wasn't willing to believe that Sherry would betray us. I'd know her for a long time, not at long as Carly, but nearly as long as Yusei. And she'd always been there for me, and was always helping me out in Duel Runner Training.

Sherry spoke to Luciano. Her voice was something I'd never heard before, rage covered by a thin veil so that she wouldn't explode. She was angry, so angry, furious and swelling and pure red.

"If you weren't about to die soon, bastard, then I would kill you now."

Her whole face had been distorted with fury. It wasn't that anger made her ugly- Sherry always had some sort of raw beauty on her, whether she was sad or happy. Just- just- rage covered all of it, making it so that are her hard edges and flaws stood out, made it so that her good slide nearly slipped away.

And Luciano looked even more gleeful than before, now that Sherry was mad. Because with Sherry, her anger and pain were always linked together. And Luciano… he seemed like a sadist. He seemed to really enjoy when Sherry was weak, like right now.

Yusei and Jack were talking quiet and fast to her, trying to get her to calm down. Jack's words didn't seem very effective- heck, he even made it a little bit worse- but Yusei's ever calm demeanor seemed to soothe her.

She had ever right to be mad. Even though Luciano was just the deliverer of bad news, he didn't have to do it in such a mean way. And perhaps her personality was different in that world. The Sherry I knew would never betray us.

A small voice in my head questioned that.

_Right?_

But I ignored it and looked at Sherry again. Now all four of them were busy (Crow was now calming down Jack, who was mad that his words made Sherry more mad, and Yusei was still reassuring Sherry), I was thinking. It was great to know about what the Terrors' lives in the past world had been like, but what we really wanted to know hadn't been answered yet. We came here wanting to know about the history, of why the knowledge of the vampire war had been erased.

"Guys," I said, with a medium loud voice. Nobody noticed. Ignoring the fact that I was in a hospital, I repeated, almost in a yell, "Guys!" The arguments stopped and everybody looked at me.

"Didn't we come here wanting to know about why the past of our world was changed? About the vampire war and all that? Sherry- I know that it sucks that you turned out to be a bad person in the old world, that doesn't mean you're bad now! We all trust you!"

There was little hesitant pause after that, but then we all let out a breath. Luciano was really good at getting us worked up. Finally, one of us spoke.

"So, Luciano," Sherry asked. Her voice was still restraining a bit of anger, but it seemed like she had blown out most of her steam. "Why is everything about the first vampire war so shady?"

The long haired boy didn't seem as happy anymore. Now he even looked serious.

"You really want to know?" he questioned all of us. All five of us Signers looked at each other, looked at Luciano, and nodded. His face was murky, hiding his true emotions.

"This is really secret information. Only I, Goodwin, Jose, and a few other select members of Yliaster know what we have done."

His eyes glimmered dangerously.

But the moment was interrupted when the door to Luciano's room swung open. A girl and a boy stared at us- no, Luciano- with harsh, judging eyes. They looked to be the same age. Both of them were the same height and had turquoise hair and golden eyes.

"Luciano," the girl hissed, tone venomous.

"You've finally found me," the boy in the bed shot back with a snicker, voice nearly as vicious as hers.

"Who are you?" Jack snapped.

She stared at us, and her eyes widened. "I recognize you all."

"Who are you?" Crow repeated.

The question seemed to finally sink in. The girl's golden eyes shimmered.

"My name is Luna."

~(-)~

Most things will be cleared up next chap~

Just to let you know, it's not confirmed that Sherry is going to betray the Signers in the 5D's anime, but to me it looks like it's shaping up that way. Nor is it true that Placido breaks apart again. They are just my own theories.

Please review! It'd be helpful to know if you thought Luciano was OoC or IC.


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